~ Researching Russell Co, Kentucky

Russell County, Kentucky – Deed Work

Well, school IS back in full swing and I spend almost every moment of my day working on that. BUT, I’ve been able to steal an hour in the evenings a couple of times to do a little genealogy work. So far, I’ve been concentrating on uploading pictures to Findagrave.com for the Clear Spring Cemetery. I believe I’m finished with A-G. But tonight, I wanted to work on something different.

A couple of weeks ago, the FHL microfilms that I order arrived at my library. I was able to spend several hours one Saturday scanning the index for the Russell County Deeds. Looking specifically for my surnames, I scanned the B’s, C’s, E’s and G’s. I still have many hours of scanning to go (maybe tomorrow???), but I decided to start an Excel file of the names I’ve scanned to put on the blog. I’m going to break it down to one index page at a time and I don’t know how often I’ll be able to post, but every little bit helps!

The indexes SAY “Date”, “Grantor”, “Grantee”, “Book”, “Page”. However, a little searching makes me think that for this index, they listed everyone alphabetically (well, all the B’s, then all the C’s, etc.) with each name mentioned as Grantor AND Grantee. In other words, I’d see a listing for Bennett/Coffey and then the same entry under Coffey/Bennett. I was relieved because that means I don’t have to read EVERY Grantee name to find my surnames. The book itself was not completely flat when filmed, so many of the page numbers are partial or missing. If I’m not confident of a page number, I’m just listing the Book. Because I haven’t looked at the actual deeds yet, I’m not sure what “& c” means. Perhaps “& children”?

My first 4 scans were at a low resolution and are not readable, so I’ll need to do those again. But I’m jumping in with my first posting for B’s. Once I get ALL of the B’s done, I’ll sort the entire list alphabetically and post it that was as well. I’ve done the best I can on deciphering the handwriting, but there may be mistakes. Be creative if you’re looking for a name! As I said before, it will take me quite awhile to get these posted, so check back often!